Job seekers need skills in STEM

Published 9:41 pm, Thursday, July 3, 2014

Landing a job in the Capital Region will likely require skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, a new report from the Brookings Institution finds.

With the region's manufacturing sector continuing to expand — the number of jobs in the field is up 8 percent over the past decade and 1.7 percent in the past year, according to state Labor Department reports — the so-called STEM skills are in demand.

The share of openings demanding those skills places the Capital Region 21st out of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, Brookings found.

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More than a third of the jobs requiring a bachelor's degree also require STEM skills, ranking the Capital Region 19th in the nation.

In the first quarter of 2013, 43.2 percent of job openings in the region required STEM skills.

Jonathan Rothwell, the author of the report, said advances in technology "have provided tremendous efficiency benefits across industries and have greatly increased demand for workers with those types of skills."

To determine how difficult it is to find qualified candidates, the report analyzed how long it took employers to fill jobs requiring certain skills. On average, STEM jobs took longer to be filled than non-STEM jobs, according to the report.

In the Capital Region, demand has grown particularly for STEM jobs that require associate's degrees, the report said. Rothwell said this is due to growth in manufacturing companies like General Electric and GlobalFoundries.

Brad Johnson, vice president of Saint-Gobain Abrasives North America, which has facilities in Albany and Watervliet, said finding blue-collar STEM workers can be challenging. He said as manufacturing becomes more technologically advanced, it becomes more important that workers have math and engineering skills.

State officials are boosting programs to help meet the increasing demand for STEM workers.

"This is where there are jobs," Willner said. "It's particularly the part of the economy that's growing if we look at good paying jobs."

Many companies have also begun sponsoring STEM education programs. Johnson said Saint-Gobain is involved with Youth Build, a non-profit that helps teach STEM skills to students ages 16–24. He said it's important that youths learn STEM skills, because "they're in demand and can provide people with a viable career and help the U.S. economy grow."